The Intriguing Tale of Decorte Future Industries | HealthTech story
From the sewing rooms of fashion to the corridors of healthcare. A story of data-driven pivots.
As a project analyst, I've borne witness to numerous pivots firsthand. In my early days in software, I often grappled with self-doubt when confronted with the necessity to pivot alongside startup visionaries. Questions plagued my mind: "Am I faltering in my analyses? Am I doing a good job?" However, as my experience grew, with each pivot encountered, I gleaned a profound insight: the ability to discern the need for a pivot is not a mark of failure, but rather a testament to adaptability and foresight.
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Consider the story of YouTube, a digital behemoth. The brainchild of Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim started as a dating website, and just like many startups, things didn't go very well for them. The small user base that the service had initially became even smaller, and they started uploading videos that didn't match the actual context of the website. This is when Karim and other founders realized that the online service wasn't utilized to its maximum potential;
“YouTube could be something more rather than just a dating website.”
The idea behind the pivot from a dating site to a generic video provider has a rather amusing origin as well. Back in 2004, the video streaming options available to the users weren't any good. Karim couldn't find the infamous video of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction from the Super Bowl anywhere online or any footage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. That is the origin story of YouTube, as we know it today.
I could go on listing countless similar stories like that: Android, Flickr, Shopify, Slack... But none of them would even come close to the dynamics behind the story of Deorte Future Industries led by an exciting Young entrepreneur - Dr Roeland P.-J. E. Decorte
EVERY GOOD STORY NEEDS A HERO
The story of Dr Decorte is an uncanny mix of data and intuition. His persona is one of those founders who from the very beginning seem to be tailor-made for the challenge. An ambassador who makes you feel welcome in his presence with a talent for public speaking and visible charisma. Features that make him a perfect Evangelist for any idea and a perfect salesman. These features play a crucial role in what’s to come.
Our rendezvous with Dr. Decorte traces back to a BBC documentary from 2019. A Cambridge student at the time, he endeavored to tackle the scourge of textile waste through groundbreaking technological innovations facilitating adaptive clothing. In a scene immortalized within the documentary, Dr. Decorte pitches his vision to the discerning members of Cambridge Business Angels, with Peter Cowley's sage query echoing resoundingly
“Is there something investible there?
Certainly, the people are, but is there a business in this investment?”
Fast forward to 2024, and Decorte Future Industries has created an AI-powered engine extracting heath data from microphones called Sonus.
What happened in those 4 years?
A BORING STORY IS NOT WORTH THE IN
In the initial stages, operating as a lone entrepreneur, Dr. Decorte managed to capture the attention and eventually secured the endorsement of the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK government. Despite the initial alignment with Defense interests, Decorte strategically shifted its focus exclusively toward health tech. With remarkable swiftness, the company started assembling a world-class team.
The pandemic played a crucial role in the story. The year 2020 marked a breakthrough moment as the UK government invested in Decorte Future Industries. Showing that the potential can reach far beyond the first assumptions and facilitating two successive testing phases through its innovation grants arm. Simultaneously, Decorte earned a coveted spot among the 10 selected companies for Techstars' London accelerator program. Substantial investments followed from Techstars, along with contributions from many notable figures.
Over two years following the completion of his doctoral studies, the visionary founder embarked on an intensive journey. During this period, he not only conceptualized but also meticulously engineered the company's pioneering technology. Groundbreaking innovation that comprised AI controls and a biometric sensor architecture seamlessly integrated into an exoskeleton, paving the way for novel, cost-effective, and efficient methods of acquiring biometric data from the human body.
Another significant milestone was achieved in December 2021 when the company recorded an impressive 99.6% accuracy rate in extracting heart data using its AI from audio, compared to the gold standard method of simultaneous ECG data collection.
In 2022, Decorte successfully concluded its $1.6 million pre-seed funding round, securing support from venture funds based in London and Silicon Valley. The subsequent years, 2022 and 2023, witnessed strategic collaborations with Apollo Hospitals, the AM Foundation, and various clinics in the US and EU. These partnerships facilitated comprehensive clinical studies, resulting in the acquisition of a world-class dataset and the expansion of Decorte's technological capabilities.
2023, Decorte Future Industries uses groundbreaking artificial intelligence to extract health data from sound. Its Sonus Engine analyses a diverse range of health metrics in real time through sound captured directly from any standard microphone. This allows early identification of inconsistencies in the body’s systems that can prevent — or assist clinicians in pre-diagnosing — conditions such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, depression, and anxiety.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
As artificial intelligence continues to transform all industries, Decorte stands out amid the hype through the simplicity of its proposition — using AI to extract and interpret health data from sound. It provides the only way to connect your body to the digital world, opening up vast possibilities for innovation, disease prevention, and a greater understanding of human health via an “Internet-of-Bodies” concept.
“...what direction do we set for the next 100 years of tech? The reality is that the direction that we set at this early stage, especially for AI will have long-term implications. It’s easy to forget just how fast can things move after a major technological shift like the one we’re currently experiencing…so it’s difficult to underestimate just how transformative AI can be.
It’s naive to assume we’ll get it right the first time. We need to find the courage to consistently reconfigure and constantly question ourselves and the direction in which we’re building”
R.D. on the AI revolution - “ Adapt or die: Data-driven pivots as key to product-market fit | COGX 2023 “
The founder himself became a well-established figure on the UK’s AI scene becoming one of its strongest promotors. Delivering Keynote speeches at countless events being awarded a Young Business Of The Year 2023 award and often quoted as an expert in the UK Press including the Financial Times. And that’s just the beginning I’m sure.
The momentum continues into 2024, with investments from the biggest names on the market. Decorte stands in strategic partnerships with tech giants Microsoft and Google, with an ambitious goal to see its technology integrated into 3 billion smartphones by 2027.
The compelling narrative of Dr. Roeland P.-J. E. Decorte and Decorte Future Industries unfolds as a captivating saga of innovation, strategic pivots, and influential partnerships propelling the company towards a future of unparalleled success.
Let this story act as motivation to push forward and think outside the box. Each tech founder needs to have his mind open to the changes in his economic environment and try to connect the dots that seem far-fetched or counterintuitive at first. Pivoting is not a sign of failure, but rather a sign of resilience.
Lastly, let this comment from Dr. Decorte serve as a roadsign for all those founders facing a need to pivot:
I think the need to pivot is indeed most often identified through analyzing the data, and, as with any strategic decision, (informed) intuition does play a very significant part in figuring out the direction in which to then pivot.
Beyond making sure that founders remain open to and aware of, all the ways in which the data fed back by R&D and consumers can be interpreted, I believe founders should also remain open to and cognisant of all the ways in which their core technology can be deployed. Especially the ways that are radically different from how they, or others in their field, are currently deploying that technology. Because there’s always the possibility that a better way of deploying your technology is out there, and becoming religious about the form rather than the function of your startup is setting it up for failure.
Put in other words, while trying to solve a problem or pursuing a mission, execution is everything, which is exactly why you shouldn’t get stuck in one way of executing and then put on blinders, but rather should constantly re-evaluate and assess whether your way of execution is still the most effective one.
